November 16, 2017

Young archer on the mark at worlds

Benjamen Lee,15, practises at the Pioneer Sportsmen Club in Kitchener on Sunday. Lee just returned from youth world championships in Argentina, among the highest ranked in the world for his cadet age group. - Mathew McCarthy,Record staff

A calm comes over Benjamen Lee when he takes bow and arrow in hand.

"The feeling of letting go of the arrow somehow eases my stress level with each arrow I shoot," Lee says. "When I pull the string back, it lowers my tension level."

It's the perfect recipe for good results in a sport calling for concentration. The 15-year-old Kitchener Collegiate Institute Grade 10 student proved that the first week of October. He had a fifth-place finish in his age group at the world archery youth championships in Rosario, Argentina.

Records are sketchy, but it's believed to be the best performance by a Canadian in the Cadet (age 15-17) division at the world juniors.

"It's due to his attitude," says London, Ont.-based sports psychologist Mario Faveri, who has worked with Lee. "In a sport where millimetres can spell the difference between winning a medal or not, he has that steady hand, intense focus and ability to deal with pressure. I'm just so proud of him."

Lee didn't win a medal in Argentina. He did win four of five matches before losing in the quarter-finals to eventual silver medallist Hyeokjung Yong, of archery powerhouse South Korea.

The performance has caught the attention of the archery world. It was Lee's first international competition outside North America. Yet he exceeded expectations, particularly because he's in the first year of his age category and is still relatively new to the sport.

Lee, who previously played baseball, took up archery three years ago, after being inspired by the characters Hawkeye in "The Avengers" and Katriss Everdeen in "The Hunger Games."

"If he had won just one match I would have considered it a success," said Lee's personal coach, Shawn Riggs, a Kitchener resident and former international competitor who is also Archery Canada's national team coach.

Yet Lee, the lone Canadian in his age group, went 4-1 after finishing No. 74 overall in the ranking round, which precedes one-on-one competition. Shooting from his age group's 60-metre distance, he beat a 39th-rated Puerto Rican, 26th rated competitor from Belarus, seventh-ranked Brazilian and 23rd-rated French competitor before losing to Yong.

Lee thrives in match play, where the competition is decided using a set system. Each set consists of three arrows. The archer with the highest score at the end of three arrows, based on the points value assigned each of the rings of the target — starting with a high of 10 for the centre ring — earns two points. The first archer to six points wins the match.

And Lee doesn't mess around. His polite manner masks the fierce competitor within. His technical ability is extremely high, Riggs says, but it's his mental game that is exceptional in terms of aggressively setting the tone in a match. He gets in a rhythm and shoots each of his three arrows quickly, establishing his score and challenging his opponent to match. It proved to be an effective strategy in Argentina, despite Lee being the underdog in every outing.

"I told myself that those are just numbers and they can change," Lee said of the ranking round results. "I just thought: 'Today is your day, you can do this.' I'm not sure where that mental strength comes from. I just feel like I've always had it. In a way I'm surprised, but with all the practice and mental training I've done, it seems this is the correct outcome."

It's the kind of work ethic and attitude that has Lee on course, Riggs says, to represent Canada at the 2024 Paris Olympics.

"The 2020 Olympics would be an extreme stretch, but 2024 is extremely likely," said Riggs, who has no worries that Lee's performance in Argentina might prompt undue pressure and expectations.

"I don't think, with Ben, we're going to need to temper expectations," Riggs said. "He's too grounded. He has great support from his parents and he understands where archery fits, without overdoing it. He's able to contextualize and prioritize things. He understands the process and that in this sport, it's a long game."

And even if he should falter along the way, psychologist Faveri believes Lee would rebound, given his disciplined nature.

"From my point of view, when you go out to compete in sports, you always win," Faveri said. "You win if you're prepared to learn from the experience."

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About Karlo

Karlo Berkovich is the former Associate Editor-Online Content and Sports Editor of the Waterloo Region Record and www.therecord.com He comments on sports and any number of topics including his other areas of interest, rock music and politics.